“To Daffodils” Introduction

• "To Daffodils," by the 17th-century English poet Robert Herrick, mourns and ultimately accepts the brevity of life. The poem's speaker pleads with spring's withering daffodils to stick around until the sun sets, before declaring that human lives are just as fleeting as those of the flowers. "To Daffodils" was one of some 1,200 poems that appeared in Herrick's only book of poetry, Hesperides: Or, The Works Both Humane & Divine, in 1648.

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“To Daffodils” Summary

• Beautiful daffodils, it makes us cry to watch you hurrying away already. It's still morning—the sun hasn't even reached its full height in the sky! Don't go, at least not until the day, which fades so quickly, has bled into the evening church service. Once we've said our prayers together, we'll go with you.

  Our human lives are just as brief as yours. Our spring is just as fleeting. We grow just as certainly towards death as anything else on this planet. Our hours dwindle just like yours, drying up just as the summer's rain eventually does; or like morning's beads of condensation, which disappear and are never seen again.

“To Daffodils” Themes

• 

  Unfulfilled Potential and the Brevity of Life

  In “To Daffodils,” the speaker mourns how quickly life fades. Addressing the titular “daffodils,” the speaker begs the delicate flowers to “stay” until evening before withering away. Read as a metaphor, this plea conveys the speaker's own anxiety about dying before they've had the chance to fully experience life. The speaker then compares the fleeting beauty of the daffodils to the “short” lives of human beings, acknowledging that this is simply the way things are in nature. Time flies; beauty fades. Overall, the poem laments, yet accepts the fact that all life, no matter how lovely, is temporary.

  The speaker's dismay at how quickly the daffodils are fading suggests their own fear of dying prematurely. Daffodils are among the first flowers to blossom in spring and also the first to fade. In saying that these early bloomers “haste away too soon” (or disappear too quickly), the speaker is metaphorically expressing their own fear of dying early.

  The speaker seems incredulous that the daffodils are withering before the “sun” has even “attain’d his noon.” In other words, the speaker marvels that the daffodils have barely begun to bloom and yet are already “dry[ing]” up. As a metaphor, this suggests that the speaker is afraid they, too, will die before achieving their full potential.

  The speaker pleads with the daffodils to “stay, / Until the hasting day / Has run / But to the even-song” (an evening church service). They say that they will go “along” with the daffodils once they’ve “pray’d” with other people, suggesting their desire to reach the end of a long, full life before departing this world.

  Distressed as the speaker is at the thought of not fulfilling their earthly potential, they also seem to find acceptance in comparing brief human lives to fleeting daffodils. The speaker says that human beings “have short time to stay,” just like the daffodils, and that their “spring” is just as ephemeral. Moreover, humans have “As quick a growth to meet decay” as the daffodils do.

  In other words, the speaker realizes that there is never going to be a great time to die—life will always feel too "quick." The speaker compares the fleeting nature of human life to “summer’s rain” that “dr[ies] / Away,” and to “pearls of morning’s dew” that simply disappear, “Ne'er to be found again.” In this way, the speaker accepts that humans aren’t special: like everything else in nature, human life is temporary.

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “To Daffodils”

• Lines 1-4

  Fair Daffodils, we weep to see
  You haste away so soon;
  As yet the early-rising sun
  Has not attain'd his noon.

  The poem begins with the speaker directly addressing spring's "Fair" (or beautiful) "Daffodils," an example of apostrophe:

  Fair Daffodils, we weep to see
  You haste away so soon;

  The speaker laments the fact that the flowers wilt so quickly. In referring to themselves as part of a collective "we" rather than as an individual ("I weep"), the speaker conveys that they're talking about a general human experience. That is, the speaker's "weep[ing]" over the dying daffodils seems to represent some deeper, more collective grief.

  The speaker then says that the "early-rising sun / Has not [yet] attain'd his noon." In other words, the speaker is upset about the daffodils dying before the sun has even reached its zenith in the sky. This reflects the fact that daffodils are some of the earliest flowers to blossom in spring and also some of the first to depart. In "hasting away" before the sun has reached its full height, they're missing out on the brightest part of the day.

  The personification of the "sun" in line 3 suggests that the speaker's sorrow about the daffodils' "early[]" death really reflects their own anxiety about not reaching their "noon," or peak. The speaker, perhaps, fears not living up to their own potential or missing out on something great; they worry they will die before they achieve whatever it is they hope to achieve in life.

  The first four lines of the poem are written in common meter. This means that lines alternate between iambic tetrameter (lines of four iambs) and iambic trimeter (lines of three iambs). An iamb is a foot made up of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, and this pattern results in a pleasing and predictable rhythm. Scanned, the first two lines look like this:

  Fair Daf- | fodils, | we weep | to see
  You haste | away | so soon;

  Note that the first foot is not iambic, or at least not strongly so. We'd argue it reads most naturally as a spondee (two stressed syllables in a row), drawing attention to the speaker's beautiful but fleeting subject. Otherwise, the iambic rhythm is familiar and musical. These lines use the ABCB rhyme scheme typically associated with common meter as well (meaning that the even-numbered lines end in a rhyme—in this case, "soon" and "noon").

  These opening lines also contain /wee/ alliteration and /ee/ and /ay/ assonance ("we weep to see," "haste away," "attain'd"), /f/ consonance ("Fair Daffodils"), and /s/ alliteration/sibilance ("so soon," "see," "haste," etc.). All of this strong musicality right off the bat suggests the intensity of the speaker's feelings.

• Lines 5-10

  Stay, stay,
  Until the hasting day
  Has run
  But to the even-song;
  And, having pray'd together, we
  Will go with you along.

  

  

• Lines 11-14

  We have short time to stay, as you,
  We have as short a spring;
  As quick a growth to meet decay,
  As you, or anything.

  

  

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• Lines 15-20

  We die
  As your hours do, and dry
  Away,
  Like to the summer's rain;
  Or as the pearls of morning's dew,
  Ne'er to be found again.

  

  

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“To Daffodils” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Apostrophe

  The speaker directly addresses the dying daffodils throughout. The flowers can't respond to the speaker, of course, making this an example of apostrophe.

  The speaker is really using the daffodils to make a point about the brevity of human life, projecting their own fears about dying and obscurity onto the flowers. The apostrophe emphasizes that their sorrow surrounding the flowers' quick passing reflects their own anxiety about dying too soon.

  Rather than beginning the poem with an immediate comparison between people and daffodils, however, the speaker simply calls out to the "Fair," or lovely, flowers, allowing this meditation on the fleeting nature of life to unfold more naturally.

  The speaker also seems to find acceptance through speaking to the daffodils. Rather than focusing on the unfairness of how short life is, the speaker implicitly acknowledges that human life is no different from the rest of nature and that there is therefore no sense in fighting the inevitable. By observing the daffodils, who aren't sentient and therefore aren't filled with anxiety around their own mortality, the speaker comes to accept the fact that everything living must eventually "meet decay." That doesn't mean the speaker isn't sad about the fact that they must someday die, but the daffodils offer them a model of how to "grow[]" towards death more gracefully.

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• Simile

  

  
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• Personification

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

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"To Daffodils" Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Fair
• Haste away
• Attain'd
• The hasting day
• But to
• Even-song
• Pray'd
• Quick
• Like to
• Ne'er

• Beautiful or lovely.

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “To Daffodils”

• Form

  "To Daffodils" contains 20 lines divided into two stanzas. The first stanza deals primarily with the titular "Daffodils," whom the speaker addresses directly. In the second stanza, the speaker explicitly compares those "Fair" but fleeting flowers to human life.

  The poem doesn't follow a recognizable form such as a sonnet or villanelle, but each stanza does use a consistent meter and rhyme scheme. The fifth and seventh lines of each stanza consist of just two syllables apiece, making them significantly shorter than the rest and subtly calling attention to the brevity of life. The "noon," or center, of each stanza, seems to contract, perhaps reflecting the speaker's fears about dying before reaching their potential.

• Meter

  "To Daffodils" plays with meter in interesting ways. The first four lines of both stanzas use common meter: they alternate between lines with four iambs (a.k.a. iambic tetrameter) and lines with three iambs (iambic trimeter). An iamb is a metrical foot made up of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

  This pattern is pretty steady. Here's how it looks in lines 1-4:

  Fair Daf- | fodils, | we weep | to see
  You haste | away | so soon;
  As yet | the ear- | ly ri- | sing sun
  Has not | attain'd | his noon.

  Notice that the first foot is most naturally read as a spondee (two stressed syllables in a row), adding oomph to the speaker's direct address to the flowers.

  The fifth and seventh lines of each stanza mess with this metrical pattern, however. These are all lines of monometer, meaning each contains just a single foot. Here are lines 5-8:

  Stay, stay,
  Until | the hast- | ing day
  Has run
  But to | the ev- | en-song;

  Line 5 is made up of a single spondee, emphasizing the speaker's insistent plea that the flowers linger a little longer. More broadly, the truncated meter seems to bring the speaker's argument to life. Readers expect another line of tetrameter yet find just two short syllables. This, in turn, evokes the brevity of life—something that the speaker believes can feel like ends before it gets a chance to take off.

• Rhyme Scheme

  "To Daffodils" follows a somewhat tricky rhyme scheme, which looks like this in each stanza:

  ABCBDDCEAE

  Things seem simple enough in the first four lines, which follow the ABCB rhyme scheme typical of common meter. However, with the shift in meter that happens in lines 5 and 7 (the use of monometer instead of tetrameter), the rhyme scheme also changes. The immediate rhyme between "stay" and "day" stands out from the other rhymes, effectively emphasizing the speaker's desire for life to last longer. The ABCB pattern of common meter is, well, common, and the sudden divergence from it in line 5 thus comes as a surprise. This, in turn, evokes the suddenness with which life can pass one by.

“To Daffodils” Speaker

• The speaker of this poem is anonymous. They don't reveal anything specific about themselves apart from the fact that they "pray[]" during "the even-song" (an evening church service), indicating that they're a Christian. They don't even refer to themselves as a singular "I," instead counting themselves as part of a collective "we." This highlights the poem's broad appeal: the speaker is expressing a general, human anxiety around death and wasted potential.

  This poem was published during the English Civil War, and it's likely the poet himself, surrounded by death and uncertainty, was grappling with the very anxieties that the speaker expresses here. Furthermore, the poem's reference to "the even-song" reflects Herrick's position as a cleric in the Christian church.

“To Daffodils” Setting

• The poem is set in the morning during spring, when blossoming "Daffodils" have already begun to wither. While poets often use "spring" to symbolize rebirth, new life, youth, etc., this poem suggests that no sooner do things blossom and "grow[]" than they begin to die. In this way, life and death go hand-in-hand; in order to live, one needs to accept the inevitability of "decay."

Literary and Historical Context of “To Daffodils”

• Literary Context

  The English poet Robert Herrick (1591-1694) first published "To Daffodils" in his 1648 book Hesperides: Or, The Works Both Humane & Divine.

  Along with his fellow Cavalier poets Richard Lovelace and Andrew Marvell, Herrick wrote poems of exuberant, life-affirming pleasure, often focused on the joys of sex and romance. Herrick considered himself one of the "Sons of Ben," disciples of elder poet and playwright Ben Jonson (a friend and rival of Shakespeare). Jonson's wry perspective on human nature shows up all through Herrick's witty, energetic work.

  Because of its sexual frankness, much of Herrick's verse fell out of favor in the 18th and 19th centuries, but today he's considered one of the most important and influential of the Cavalier poets. Some of his poems(such as "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time") have never gone out of style, and are often quoted even now.

  Herrick, of course, wasn't the first, nor the last, to write about making the most of life's fleeting moments. In fact, Herrick's work can be seen within the broader tradition of poets writing "carpe diem" (a.k.a. "seize the day") poetry. Some other notable examples of "carpe diem" poetry include "Archaic Torso of Apollo" by Rainier Marie Rilke, "Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota" by James Wright, and "Be Drunk" by Charles Baudelaire.

  Historical Context

  Robert Herrick lived and wrote in the midst of unprecedented English political turmoil: the chaos and carnage of the English Civil War, which ran from 1642 to 1651. In this long and bloody conflict, English anti-monarchist Parliamentarians (also known as Roundheads) clashed with monarchist Royalists (a.k.a. Cavaliers) over the governance of the kingdom. Herrick remained an ardent Royalist all through his life, and composed verse in praise of the deposed Charles I and the restored Charles II.

  Only a year after "To Daffodils" was first published, the Roundhead forces, led by Oliver Cromwell, deposed, tried, and beheaded King Charles I. This was an earthshaking shock to a country that had long believed in the divine right of kings (and a serious personal blow to Herrick, a Royalist to his core).

  The government that Cromwell established in the aftermath of the king's execution was unstable. England remained war-torn until the Restoration—that is, the return of the monarchy with the 1660 coronation of King Charles II, Charles I's son. But the nature of English governance had changed for good, and the monarchy's power had begun its slow decline.

More “To Daffodils” Resources

• External Resources

  • Learn More About Robert Herrick — A Poetry Foundation biography of the poet.

  • Listen to a Reading of the Poem — An audio performance of "To Daffodils."

  • What Do People Do at Even-Song? — A professor from Notre Dame University offers an explanation of vespers (a.k.a. "even-song").

  • Poems for Making the Most of Time: An Introduction to Carpe Diem Poetry — A Poets.org article on work that falls into the general category of "carpe diem" poetry. 

  • An Introduction to the Cavalier Poets — A definition and examples of Cavalier poetry, the literary movement with which Herrick is associated. 

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Robert Herrick

  • Delight in Disorder

  • To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time